Scroll down to the bottom and click "Older Posts" to view: Great Sand Dunes National Park, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado National Monument, Cannonland National Park, and Arches National Park.

The Little Guy in a little despair

The Great Sand Dunes of Colorado:

The next morning we hit the dunes really early. As we were at the visitor’s center a couple asked about the little guy. Of course I gave them a tour and just as I was explaining the storage in the back I looked down at the bottom corner and noticed it was falling apart.

Just like the first little guy that fell apart while my parents were camping this summer, the wood on the side of the camper was starting to rot and rip the seam apart

As Jason and I inspected the little guy I was almost to tears; our trip was over.

Not in the mood at all to hike we decided to walk to the base of the dunes, fill up our water bottles and head south to New Mexico. Our next obligation became getting the little guy fixed.

The drive down to New Mexico was filled with a ton of small towns and although we needed to keep driving, I just had to stop and take a few photos of some painted water towers and old trains. 

We really lucked out stopping in the town of Espanola. With the help of my dad, back in New York, we were able to find a local welder who was able to fix our home on wheels. He built and welded a metal brace, on the corner and damaged side, to the metal frame underneath. 

So relieved that we could still continue on the trip we left to the next national park on our list, Bandelier.

Curecanti National Recreation Area

Our next destination was a scenic route through the Black Hills and the Curecanti National Recreation area. It wasn’t until we arrived at the Black Hills National Park that we realized that we had entered from the wrong side. In order to go through the scenic drive of the park we would have to drive over an hour out of the way. Instead we just followed the Gunnison River through the mountains of Curecanti. 

We stopped a few times to take photos of landscapes, animals, the river and then finally then once over the dam we continued South towards the Great Sand Dunes.

It was a long drive but we followed a few scenic drives and found a Wal-mart about 20 miles West of the dunes.

Grand Junction, CO

After spending a few days in the parks, we were in desperate need for an errand day and there was no better place to run errands than Grand Junction.

We were able to purchase a very warm sleeping bag and a pair of cowboy boots each.

Since we began our trip I have been dying to purchase a pair of Western cowboy boots. 

While driving and searching for a Laundromat and shower, I had to stop at the one huge store advertising cowboy boots and hats. As soon as we entered the doorway we were greeted with friendly howdy’s and about a thousand cowboy boots.

We honestly really must have annoyed Yodi (the shoes salesman) because we spent about two hours trying on all different styled boots. Waiting around for me, Jason ended up looking around and by the time I was done, I was waiting for him. We ended up each purchasing a pair of cowboy boots.